BARDSTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) -- High Schools in Nelson County would get crowded under a proposal to combine them with district middle schools.
The district said the focus would be to create a “United Middle and High School Community,” focusing on a seven-year experience and careers after. Thomas Nelson High School and Nelson County High School would accommodate the transition.
Some parent said sixth-graders should not be learning with 12th*graders.
“At that age, those kids don’t care about careers," said Michelle Hatfield, who has a daughter in Boston School in Bardstown. "They want to do music and arts. That stuff is important.”
The four schools that could join the high schools are Boston School, Bloomfield Middle School, Old Kentucky Home Middle School and New Haven School. Students who live west of U.S. 31 would attend Thomas Nelson High School, and those who live east of 31 would attend Nelson County High School.
At the school board's first in-person meeting since the pandemic began, parents listened Tuesday to a plan about what the consolidation would entail.
The district superintendent said tax dollars would not increase due to recent funding.
“I think it’s a very huge risk of combining those schools and making sure our kids are safe,” said David Norman, the parent of a fourth-grader in the district. “I’m hoping we are educating our kids to get them ready for careers and not fake education. I’m concerned about it. I’m very concerned.”
Each of the high schools would have between 1,200 and 1,300 students. Thomas Nelson and Nelson County would build expansions to accommodate the additional students.
It’s not clear yet what would happen to former schools or current teachers.
“If I was a sixth-grader coming up here at Thomas Nelson or Nelson County, I would be a little bit scared,” freshman Sheriden Skees said. “I would think it would be very weird and I would be very sacred about coming into a school with seniors in it, people that are four or five years older than me.”
Each school in the district will hold its own meeting with parents through May 18. If approved by the district and KDE, the transition would happen in the fall of 2023.
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